


as long as we keep it low, low, low (low-key)

by candybeat



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-04
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:15:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23481577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candybeat/pseuds/candybeat
Summary: The last person he expects to be banging on his door in the middle of the night is a very intoxicated, weeping, Na Jaemin.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin
Comments: 4
Kudos: 143





	as long as we keep it low, low, low (low-key)

The last thing Donghyuck expects is someone loudly banging on his door in the middle of the night. He knows it’s Friday night, but for fuck’s sake, can they bother somebody else? 

Blearily, he reaches for his phone that’s charging on the floor to check the time, and the remnants of sleep leave him when he notices the ten missed calls from Jaemin on his phone. The more he scrolls through his notifications, the more anxious he becomes. The banging on his door hasn’t stopped either, but now there’s more important issues on hand. 

He calls Jaemin back, but it immediately goes to voicemail. His mind is spinning. God, what if something had happened to him and Donghyuck was too busy sleeping to come save him? He immediately gets up and tries to put on some pants and at the same time, he dials Renjun. Jaemin had gone out with Renjun that night, so he should know something right? 

First though, he’ll put the fear of God in whoever is banging on his damn door. Marching to his door, Donghyuck curses, “Don’t you guys have any fucking sha—” 

When he opens the door, his hands are immediately filled with one extremely intoxicated, weeping, Na Jaemin. His heart pounds and his body nearly sags in relief, so much so that he barely notices Renjun standing to the side unimpressed. 

“Jun,” Donghyuck says, concerned, “what the hell happened? He doesn’t even like drinking.” 

“It’s really not my business,” Renjun sighs, and it feels like a stone has settled at the pit of his stomach. 

“Did he say—” Donghyuck tries to ask, but Renjun shakes his head, “Nope, I really do not want to know. I refuse to get pulled into whatever games you guys are playing.”

Immediately, Donghyuck is incensed, “I would never play games with him.” 

Renjun just raises a brow, shooting a look at Jaemin’s form draped over him. “Anyway, I’m going home. I am so tired. Goodnight.” 

His harsh tone is immediately undercut by the way his eyes soften as he runs his hand soothingly down Jaemin’s back. It's never been a secret that Jaemin had always been his favorite out of all of them. 

Donghyuck nods at him and doesn’t even wait for him to get into the elevator down the hall to turn his attention to Jaemin, who seems to have calmed down and has his face buried against his neck. He kisses the top of his head and tries to pull him in and close the door. 

It’s a struggle to carry him to his bed. Jaemin refuses to cooperate by being a complete dead weight; Donghyuck regrets all the times he’s skipped the gym and curses all the time Jaemin spends there. 

By the time, Donghyuck gets to the edge of his bed, he is ready to drop Jaemin like a rock down the edge of a cliff. When he tries to though, Jaemin’s grip on him tightens and he makes a sound of protest. 

“Baby,” Donghyuck soothes, “I am not going anywhere. Don’t you want to change and go to bed?” 

Jaemin shakes his head and peeks with his big watery eyes from the crook of Donghyuck’s neck. God, his boyfriend is absolutely cute even when he’s being impossible. 

“What is it?” Donghyuck asks, deciding to position himself to sit on his bed and hoping Jaemin follows and sits down too. 

Jaemin protests, and in his drunken state, what ends up happening is that he ends up falling onto the bed and dragging Donghyuck down with him. They clank heads and Jaemin rolls away, clutching his head in hurt. 

Donghyuck tries to massage the hurt away and prays that he didn’t lose any more brain cells, and he prays to god that that somehow sobered Jaemin up, even just a little. He checks on him and sees that him blink a couple of times, “Hyuck?” 

Donghyuck tilts his head to the side, trying to meet Jaemin’s eyes, “It’s me, sweetheart. You okay?” 

At the flash of recognition in Jaemin’s eyes, the confusion in his expression immediately turns to hurt, “why am I here? Where’s Renjun?” 

“Renjun brought you here, because you had drank too much,” Donghyuck frowns, his hand moving to cup Jaemin’s cheek, “is everything okay? Are you okay?” 

Jaemin turns away from him and pushes his hand away from his face, “I should go home.” 

“What?” Donghyuck doesn’t understand. He reaches for Jaemin’s hands this time, but this time Jaemin stands up, wobbling. “It’s really late and you already have clothes here. Just stay the night with me, please.” 

“You’re just saying that,” Jaemin has never looked this hurt in his presence, “you don’t really want me here.” 

“What?” Donghyuck racks his head for what could have caused this, what could have been said to make Jaemin think he doesn’t want him here, “Jaemin, you know I adore you, right?” 

Jaemin shakes his head, but Donghyuck won’t stand for anyone or anything making Jaemin doubt his feelings for him. Donghyuck pushes him down to sit on the bed, and he straddles him, sitting on his lap, so he can’t escape. “Donghyuck,” Jaemin whines. 

“Nope, you know I would usually let you sulk and be sad or angry, but this, I won’t let it go.” Donghyuck rests his wrists on Jaemin’s shoulders, his hands tracing soothing circles on his back. 

Jaemin worries his bottom lip between his teeth and reluctantly meets his eyes, “I don’t know if I’m ready to hear the truth.” 

Again, Donghyuck tries to rack his brain for what Jaemin could be referring to, but he hasn’t got a clue. “From me? I only have good things to say,” Donghyuck tries to smile, but Jaemin doesn’t smile back, “Come on, baby. How am I supposed to make it all better if you won’t tell me what’s wrong?” 

“What if you can’t make it better?” Jaemin starts, challenge in his voice and steel in his eyes. “What if you hurt me?” 

“We’re dating, Jaemin,” Donghyuck sighs, “We’re bound to hurt each other. But I promise you this,” Donghyuck ducks down and presses a kiss against Jaemin’s chest, right where his heart should be, “the way I feel for you should never hurt you.” 

Jaemin carefully studies him, as if searching for any hint of dishonesty in his words, until finally, he says, “so you don’t want to stop this?” 

Donghyuck freezes. This wasn’t how he imagined this conversation to go. Donghyuck sighs, figures that he really shouldn’t be talking about his relationship with other people, “I didn’t realize you had heard me talking about it. I swear, I’ve wanted to bring it up for the longest time, but wasn’t sure how. But yes, I do want to end it.” 

Jaemin’s whole body stiffens and whatever calm and trust he had managed to get in the past five minutes completely disappears. There’s none of Jaemin’s warmth now. “I see,” Jaemin says, blankly. 

“Huh?” 

This time, Jaemin pushes him off his lap and Donghyuck barely catches himself and almost hits the ground. “How long?” 

At Donghyuck’s stunned silence, Jaemin asks again, “How long have you been wanting to end this?” 

Donghyuck scratches the back of his head, “Well, it was fun and exciting the first week, but I was getting tired of all the hiding that we were doing.” 

His answer seems to hurt Jaemin even more, who quietly lets out a breath, as if to relieve some pain. Jaemin nods and says, “I see. Okay. I just, it’s going to take me some time to be okay with this.” 

God, Donghyuck thinks, has he been reading this all wrong? The past few weeks, Jaemin had looked as tired as him about keeping their relationship a secret. Did he mistake the longing in Jaemin’s eyes, when Mark and Jeno had announced their relationship to their friend group, as something else? Donghyuck’s birthday was coming up too, and there would be no excuse in the world that would survive Renjun’s inquisition to support why he wanted to spend it with Jaemin alone. 

But Donghyuck is a good boyfriend, so he nods, “Take all the time you need. You know I wouldn’t do anything you’re not comfortable with.” 

Jaemin scoffs, “I don’t know how you think I could be comfortable with any of this, but okay. God, I really think I should go home.” 

Okay, that one hurt, and he can’t just shrug that one off. “I didn’t realize you wanted to keep it a secret so bad.” 

Jaemin shrugs, and he turns around, heading towards Donghyuck’s dresser, “you’re the one who wants to break up.” 

Donghyuck watches him pull out the pile of clothes that he’s left behind over the past two months they’ve been dating. He’s in a daze — until Jaemin’s words finally penetrate through the hurt fogging up his head, “wait, what? Who said I wanted to break up? What?” 

Jaemin gives him a side-eyed glare, “isn’t that what we’ve been talking about all this time? Are you trying to make it seem like I was the one who suggested it? That’s really low of you.” 

“No, I mean, uh,” Donghyuck stands up, stumbling over his words, like he’s the one who’s been drinking all night, “I don’t want to break up.” 

“You literally fucking said you wanted to end this between us minutes ago!” Jaemin runs a hand through his hair in frustration, “you’ve been doing this to me all night. What is it? Do you want to break up? Do you like me?” 

“First of all,” Donghyuck walks over to him and starts putting his clothes back in the drawer, where it belongs, “I’m like head over heels crazy for you, so let me just put that out there. And when I said I wanted to end things, I meant that I wanted to stop dating you secretly and tell everyone that we’re dating.” 

It takes a second or two for the words to register in Jaemin’s mind. But when it does Jaemin falls to a crouch on the floor, looking like his breath got knocked out of him. In a small voice, he admits, “Okay, I thought you were breaking up with me just now.” 

“No,” Donghyuck denies, vehement and clear. “You’re the one who’s going to have to break up with me. I’m saying it now.” 

Jaemin laughs but tries to cover it up with his hand. It’s futile. Donghyuck has sharp eyes for Jaemin’s laughs — the crinkle at the corner of his eyes? That’s Donghyuck’s very first win of the night. “Don’t joke about that. You know I like you just as much.” 

Donghyuck smiles, extending a hand, “Yeah? Come show me then.” 

They end up on his bed, with Jaemin on top of him, kissing him so sweetly. When Jaemin pulls away, Donghyuck holds him by the nape and presses many short kisses to his mouth in succession. After he’s satisfied, he sighs, “God, Na Jaemin, you had me so worried there.” 

Jaemin kisses him on the nose and gives him a smile, “Sorry, if it’s any consolation, it’s been eating at me all day.” 

Donghyuck frowns, “Next time, just talk to me. I don’t want you to keep things to yourself, especially if it’s about us. We’re in this together, okay?” 

Jaemin nods, and rests his head on Donghyuck’s shoulder. It’s nice and Donghyuck knows he should urge Jaemin to change into pajamas, drink some water, and brush his teeth before he falls asleep. But he wants to hold Jaemin for just a moment longer.

Also, there’s one more thing they haven’t addressed: “We can talk about it tomorrow, but do you want to tell everyone we’re dating?” Donghyuck tentatively asks. “I really am okay with keeping it a secret if that’s what you want.” 

Jaemin raises his head and gives Donghyuck’s chin a peck. This time, he grins, teasing, “Babe, I don’t know how to break it to you. But everybody already knows.” 

“What?!”

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I KNOW why do i keep writing them in a secret relationship?? this was gonna be in the WIPs forever so i just wrote the scene i wanted to write the most
> 
> background not included: 
> 
> \- nahyuck secretly dating each other because they didn't want their friends to tease them and didn't want to ruin group dynamics in case it didn't work out  
> \- donghyuck best boyfriend!!! also an oblivious clown - he is not subtle enough to be hiding a relationship, especially when he has heart eyes all the time  
> \- na jaemin overheard donghyuck on the phone talking to his brother about ending all the sneaking around and hiding because he was getting tired of it. and then he left before he could hear the rest of what donghyuck was saying!!!! jaemin ended up going to renjun and being super sad and getting drunk to forget about how donghyuck was totally going to dump him. too bad drunk jaemin had other ideas and begged renjun to take him home to donghyuck.  
> \- renjun exasperated at them, but wants the best for them.


End file.
